Playing Fair and Being Kind

AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT

Opportunity coupled with preparedness.

As I see it, when my new friend in the X Division on the USS Orion found me on the port side, aft section of the main deck smoking a cigarette, there were happenings in place that came to form a minor version of a “perfect storm”. My friend, and I can’t remember his name unfortunately, was excited and was talking to me from several steps away as he approached. “Goody! Go down to the squadron office right now! They are taking volunteers to go on the submarines, now!” He repeated this message again because he saw my dumb look. What a break! I was thinking. All I could think of was to say, “The squadron office?” Without another word I rushed past him as I headed for my ticket off the tender.

It took me less than a minute to travel up one deck and forward about fifty frames to the Submarine Squadron Six office. The door was open and there were a couple of Yeomen seated at their desks busying themselves with various administrative/clerical tasks. The closest one to the door caught my energetic burst. “I hear you’re looking for volunteers for the submarines!” He was a petty-officer-first-class wearing the dolphin insignia of a qualified submariner. “That’s right”, responded. He was searching my face and checking out my appearance. Luckily, I was wearing my best undress-blues. “Tell me your name and we’ll see if you qualify for submarine duty.”

The situation was this; the submarine school in New London was not pumping out enough graduates to meet the needs for replacements in the submarine force. A stop-gap strategy for the force was to seek bright, young men from the submarine tenders throughout the world. The message had just been received by this Squadron and I was within shouting distance. I was the second man to show up at the door. My friend had been the first. The message authorized the Squadron to seek out young non-rated men with a combined score of GCT/ARI over a certain number. GCT was the ‘intelligence’ score and ARI was the arithmetic score from the first day of our bootcamp experience. I scored well on both resulting in my combination GCT/ARI being high enough to make the cut for submarine duty without having to go to Submarine School in New London.

The Yeoman, who was attending to me, made a phone call to the personnel office and verified my scores and hung up the phone. “O.K. You’re good to go”, he said. “Step in here and look at this board.” I entered the office further and saw a status board above his desk that listed all the submarines in the Squadron. I didn’t understand the symbols and abbreviations that accompanied the names but that mattered not. He pointed out the submarines that were currently in port, tied up at the Destroyer-Submarine piers in the vicinity. I chose the name “Sirago” because it sounded cool. “Sirago”, I said. He looked at me and told me it was going to sea the next day and was going to lie on the bottom of the ocean for a few weeks. “Sounds good to me”, I said. I didn’t care what it was going to do, I just wanted to be a submarine sailor. “I don’t mind”, I added. He had been pulling my leg. His look said it all. “This kid is good-crazy.” He told me to pack my sea-bag and report to the Sirago which was tied up over at the opposite pier from Orion. It was in a nest of three submarines across the slip to the south.

An hour later I was topside on USS Sirago (SS-485) getting logged aboard by the topside watch. I think it was Billy Bush who was on watch. He called down below to the below decks watch to inform them there was a new crewman topside and would they meet me at the bottom of the torpedo room hatch forward. Thus, began a new life as a crew member of the coolest submarine in Squadron Six. The motto of the Sirago was and has always been, “Fighter, Feeder – Squadron Leader!” We were the best at killing and the best at feeding the crew. Don Gotta, a Sonar-man, met me at the bottom of the forward torpedo room ladder and patted me on the ass with a grin. “Welcome aboard”, he cooed.

Gentle George
October 28, 2019